Chanelwish, you will be surprised that many people do what they do cos they loved to and it's not always because of monetary gains. That's a myopic view.
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tPF authenticator discussion
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Chanelwish, you will be surprised that many people do what they do cos they loved to and it's not always because of monetary gains. That's a myopic view.
Unless she's recently quit, one of the key authenticators for Hermes also has a paid authentication business. I think she gets a lot of cross-traffic.
I think this could help a lot. All the evidence shows that the current way - "read the rules in post #1" - no matter how clear it may seem to those who already know how to do it - is not working.
I disagree. (My field is user behaviour.) They don't read it, because a) too much text everywhere omg, and b) they can drop a link in a box and hit a button. It doesn't get the desired result, but it's the most obvious action. If they physically cannot post a request without providing the required information, they will either provide the required information or give up and go away. There's a balance between making an action too difficult to complete successfully, and making it incredibly easy to do it wrong. The AT threads are erring on the latter end right now. Asking someone to read some text "over there" and figure out how it applies to them before they can request this free service... IMO, it's a model that cannot be made to work.
Nailed it! Make it a process, a form to fill out. Those who are serious about wanting answers will comply, the rest will simply not even bother. Problem solved.
In my jaundiced view, potential buyers have a responsibility to acquaint themselves with a brand before contemplating a purchase. With the vast resource of the Internet at their disposal, a potential buyer should have at the very least a rudimentary knowledge of their prospective purchase.
Then and only then should they seek confirmation. Paid authentication services are a small price to pay when a buyer is considering spending thousands on a bag. However, if they choose instead to avail themselves of the tremendously generous authenticates here on tpf, then it is their responsibility to not only read the rules but to follow them to the letter.
If that's too much effort for a prospective buyer, then I see no reason why anyone should expend their efforts on that buyer's behalf.
Then and only then should they seek confirmation. Paid authentication services are a small price to pay when a buyer is considering spending thousands on a bag. However, if they choose instead to avail themselves of the tremendously generous authenticates here on tpf, then it is their responsibility to not only read the rules but to follow them to the letter.
If that's too much effort for a prospective buyer, then I see no reason why anyone should expend their efforts on that buyer's behalf.
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People not posting in the format is a small part of the issue. So problem not solved if only that is addressed.
The nasty behaviour we see cant be fixed with a program or form, and you can only ignore so much. The other forums I belong to have a VERY low threshold for bad behaviour by newbies and there is a lot to be said for that.
This is VERY well said . I thought about this yesterday
I would NEVER buy a bag from a designer that I did not do my homework on
When I started buying my bags on ebay, I scoured the internet for any and
ALLLLL information on authenticating those brands
and I studied and studied and studied . compared 100's if not thousands of photos
I figured it was the LEAST I could do, since I was saving money
in the process .
BUT . it seems that a lot of people don't want to take that kind of responsibility
and in turn, as you say, the least they can do, if they are UNWILLING to
to the homework on a designer and learn some basics on what things to look for
in an authentic item, that they could at least make sure they are
following the format, and act with a bit of humility and gratitude towards the
people who are providing this service to them free of charge. .
I look at forums as a persons home
You would not walk into a persons home and just start copping
an attitude with the hostess and putting your feet on the table.
You walk in with your manners on alert, and be on your BEST behavior, and get a FEEL for the room, before you just let yourself go loose
I belong to several forums and I agree about low tolerance for bad behavior. But, they don't have as many members as TPF and the mods have better control. The abuse the authenticators receive really needs to be addressed before more of you leave.
This is true and one thing that makes those threads vastly different
from other parts of the forum, and makes it so the AT threads
have far different needs..
Like I suggested earlier, perhaps make the Trusted Authenticators secondary
mods of the AT threads .
So they can deal with these issues as they crop up, without having to
find a Regular Moderator who is most likely dealing with
petty conflicts in 5 other sub-forms .
Allowing the Authenticators a lot more control of the AT threads.
I am a moderator of a political site with maybe 100 members .
I can't even imagine what it must be like for the mods here
with 10's of thousands of members
Software may fix the format issue; it may not. People may still bump their requests if they want an answer NOW. The flip side of that is this: the reason authenticators respond to difficult members eventually is because it seems no one else will. Moderators/admins' responses to reports has to be faster and it has to be obvious that this kind of bad behaviour is not going to be tolerated. Otherwise, why blame authenticators for finally addressing an ongoing problem in a thread in which they are the most active.
I think every single person who authenticates will agree with me when I say praise only goes so far.
I could care less if I got another word of praise as long as the rude and obnoxious people were removed. THAT is the form of "thanks" that would mean SO much more to me.
That's the thing. I tried to do that, very recently, without being combative.
A new member posted a request that had crappy photos. I told her that the photos weren't great and to please read page 1 carefully.
She gave me a jackass reply along the lines of "I already posted what the seller had and if you can't help me then FINE".
I said - "that's a pretty rude reply from someone requesting a free service" - which is pretty mild if you ask me - then I reported her post as rude. So then MY posts were removed as well - which DOES give the impression that I too was slapped! AND I got the "inappropriate post, please review guidelines" note.
All for defending myself.
And honestly, if your moderators are sometimes feeling that way - it is really time to start putting the smack down on some of these people.
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